British GT, Oulton Park – Qualifying Report
Simonsen’s Scud Missile

The second of the two practice sessions showed a very different to that of the earlier one; a fully dry track suggesting that the Ferrari Scuderias had the upper hand. Matt Griffin left it until just before the flag fell to drop in a 1:37.825; deposing Allan Simonsen, who had up to that point held court with a seemingly imposing 38.223. Adam Wilcox’s 38.771 was almost half a second ahead of the Jones Ascari in fourth, with Michael Bentwood’s Aston sixth on 39.911 and  Tom Ferrier sixth with 1:40.299. It’s a measure of how the pace of the cars has improved, that Ferrier, despite being 2.5s off Simonsen’s time, was still below the existing lap-record.

But Ferrier and team-mate Paul Warren had other things to worry about. The #10 Scuderia needed a new gearbox and this wouldn’t be completed before qualifying began at 16:40. There was still hope, however; the team’s spare Scuderia being readied by the Chad mechanics while Jamie Masarati went in search of the required signatures of permission from the other teams. Its absence at the start of qualifying, however, suggested that not everyone had agreed to the request.

In G4, the X-Bow stayed at the head of the pack after qualifying, but the Speedworks Ginetta had closed the gap to a more reasonable 1.473s in the dry conditions.

Qualifying began with the threatened rain staying well away; but the cars found themselves back in the pitlane after just a couple of laps, courtesy of a red flag. Craig Wilkins arrived at Old Hall at too high a speed on his opening lap and the GT3 racing Viper hit the tyre wall with some force. The car would be taking no more part in the day’s proceedings, while the barrier he hit also needed some TLC. The Viper was recovered back to the pits and damage didn’t look too severe; “Not a good time for a quote!” smiled its driver.

At the time of the red flag, David Ashburn was leading the way on 1:44.706 in the Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3R, ahead of Jose Balbiani’s Chad Ferrari on 1:45,830 and Hector Lester’s Scuderia on 1:45.975. Jamie Stanley, meanwhile, had set the fastest G4 time up to that point, with 1:49.437.

The 15 minute delay allowed Chad to complete the preparation of the spare car – having indeed gathered the required scribbles successfully – and Paul Warren joined the queue awaiting the restart.

No such luck for the GTC class Kinfaun Porsche, however. They had also lost a gearbox earlier in the day, but were lacking the spare car that had proved so handy for Chad. 

David Jones crossed the line with seven minutes of the session remaining to begin the first flying lap after the restart, and finished it 1 minute 39.879 seconds later; in the process creating a chasm between his car and the rest of the field. Ashburn responded by knocking three and a half seconds off his own time, but that still left him a second and a half off pole; a situation not helped when the Ascari knocked a further second off its time on the next lap.

As Ashburn continued to chip away at his time, several other drivers were now within striking range. Chris Hyman briefly went third with a 1:41.500 in the #21 Chad Ferrari before the first of the United Autosports Audis announced their presence; Mike Guasch leaping to second with 1:41.045 in the #22.

The Porsche driver reasserted himself by retaking second with 1:40.640, but it was the briefest of triumphs as first Guasch and then Zak Brown, in the #23 Audi, claimed second place in succession. But all three were denied a front-row spot with just a few seconds remaining on the timing screen when Duncan Cameron found the space to take the MTECH Ferrari round in 1:39.827; still six-tenths off the Ascari pace.

Juan Garriz did a great job in his debut qualifying session to set a seventh-fastest 1:41.749, while Paul Warren managed to find a 1:42.691 in the very hastily prepared #10 Chad Scud. Paul Whight was finding time in the Barwell-Cadena Aston in the latter stages of the session – the first for him in the series for some time – and he improved to a ninth-quickest 1:41.955 on his final lap.

G4 qualifying did not go as expected, with Jamie Stanley navigating his way round the 2.692 mile International circuit to great effect; his 1:47.325 in the Speedworks Ginetta good enough for class pole by a second and a half. And the car that would line up alongside him on Monday’s grid turned out to be the Piranha Lotus 2-Eleven, as Chris Bialan beat the X-Bow of Benjamin Harvey to the spot by more than half a second.

Rick Pearson claimed fourth with a 1:52 in the returning Nissan 350Z or ProMotorsport, despite finding that the car’s centre of gravity was too high in comparison to the class opposition, while the still-sick Century Motorsport G50 brought up the rear.

The delay in the first session, together with a packed schedule (still two races to be run) and an approaching curfew, meant that the break between the two qualifying sessions was almost nothing, while the second session would be truncated to 13 minutes. Only 15 cars would take part – the Viper and Kinfaun Porsches for reasons already stated; as well as the Piranha Lotus (driver at wrong circuit) and the Century Ginetta (not very well).

When the day comes that Allan Simonsen is no longer racing in British GT, we will look back on these second qualifying sessions with real fondness; for the Dane is rarely anything other than spectacular – and at Oulton he began with a 1:38.970. This had been lowered to a 1:37.555 before anyone else managed even to break the 1:40 barrier; Michael Bentwood moving the Aston into second on 1:39.894.

Tom Ferrier marked his return to the BGT with a 1:39.977 in the #10 Scud; but it was Matt Griffin who was the first to really go after the Rosso Verde man but lowering the ‘best of the rest’ time to 1:38.613. Third changed hands again when former champion Richard Dean set a 1:39.604 in the #23 Audi; but the session was about to get frenzied.

With less than five minutes remaining, the sector times on two lines of the timing screens started to change colour indicating that both Matt Griffin and Allan Simonsen were speeding up. The Irish driver was further round the track than the Dane and when he crossed the line he found himself in possession of provisional pole – 1:37.152. But Simonsen wasn’t slowing down and when he finished the lap he reclaimed the prize with a monumental 1:36.934. Griffin tried to respond, but the tiniest of errors cost him the tenths needed to challenge once more.

Both Scuderias pitted with two minutes to go, but keeping Simonsen out on track for six laps of qualifying was a triumph in itself.

While the fight for pole was raging, things were just as intense not so far behind. Adam Wilcox reminded onlookers that he was still around by snatching third with a 1:38.215 in the Predator Scud – just a few hundredths ahead of the Godfrey Jones-driven Ascari – while Richard Dean lowered his Audi’s time to a fifth-fastest 38.340. Michael bentwood and Siso Cunill were close behind in sixth and seventh, with eight-tenths covering third to seventh.

Rory Butcher took G4 pole in the KTM X-Bow, but Christian Dick was within a second and a half in the Speedworks Ginetta. Joe Osborne was third in his eponymous G50, a half second further back, while Derek Palmer was the final qualifier on 53.744.

The evidence from the first day of the new season would suggest that the favourites for the opening races would be MTECH in GT3 and Speedworks in G4. However, it’s rarely as simple as that (did someone mention the Joneses?) and the two Easter Monday encounters should make for great entertainment.

MH